Going back to basics!! is this the right way?

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Going back to basics!! is this the right way?

by hk » Tue May 05, 2009 9:51 am
Here is my story so far:

1. Prepped for the GMAT for 3 months - systematic, good strategy, studied 5-6 days a week.

2. Made flash cards, reviewed then twice a week, made an Error log and logged all the incorrect questions from OG and revisited them twice before the test.

3. Always reviewed both the correct and the wrong answers and spend atleast 2 hrs after practice tests reviewing.

4. Took 11 practice tests. score ranged from 560 to 700

5. Took the GMAT last week end and score 640 (Q44, V34)

Needless to say I'm unhappy with the outcome and am planning to retake it next month say mid-june. So i have about 7 weeks. And this time I desire to score more than 680 (The schools that i'm targetting have their avg score from 680 to 700)

Right now i'm trying hard to come up with a plan, a strategy to prepare more efficiently. I think my weakness are Word problem in which i tend to spend too much time, Number properties (careless mistakes), SC (the tough ones). My all i could come up with was Strenghtening my basics.

I bought the MGMAT number properties and word translation book, and also the Kaplan Verbal workbook. And plan to study for 2 weeks to strenghten my concepts and then redo all the OG11 problem which i have already gone through twice. Then take the 2 GMATPrep tests (again, i've already taken them each twice).

Can anybody comment on my approach for the retake? Am i doing it right or am i wasting time? Do you guys have a better idea/strategy.

Thanks in advance for you Invaluable advices and suggestions..

HK
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by VP_Jim » Tue May 05, 2009 10:55 am
Your plan sounds pretty good; my only comment would be that your math is already pretty strong, so you're going to make the biggest strides in verbal. I don't really think that doing the OG math again will help much - if you're scoring 44, you have the foundation down. Now you need to work on applying what you know to new problems and, especially, recognizing common word problem types so that you can pick up speed.

As for verbal, going through the OG will definitely help. Even though it's painful, spend a lot of time internalizing the explanations for RC and CR. A lot of people neglect to do this, so it's often a great way to pick up points.

Also, I don't think doing the GMAT Prep tests again will help since you'll get lots of repeat questions. Use some of the free practice exams from the prep companies. Here's a link to the Veritas test to get you started.

https://www.veritasprep.com/gmat-prepara ... tice-GMAT/

Good luck - and 640 ain't bad! I've had students get into Harvard, Stanford, Michigan, and Dartmouth with 640-650.
Jim S. | GMAT Instructor | Veritas Prep

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by hk » Tue May 05, 2009 11:39 am
Jim,

Thanks a lot for you valuable input. I'll do my best with the Quant. I'm sure if i can avoid those stupid careless mistakes i can hit scores of 48-49.

But the question is Verbal. I had practiced using the questions in OG11 and the OG verbal book before my GMAT. When i revisited them i think i feel the questions are familiar and although i try to go through reasons to pick an answer choice, my left brain already know which one is correct. So there is not real testing going on. Do you know of any good practice questions which i could solve?
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by VP_Jim » Tue May 05, 2009 12:50 pm
Have you purchased the verbal supplement to the OG (the purple book) yet? If not, start there. I'm not very familiar with prep books other than our own and the OGs, so beyond that I can't really recommend anything.
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by hk » Wed May 06, 2009 6:17 am
Jim,

Yes i have purchased the OG Verbal book and have finished all the questions from that book too prior to taking the test. But i'll revisit it.
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by deckJackson » Thu Jun 11, 2009 4:25 pm
To improve CR questions, work some Logical Reasoning problems from the LSAT. These problems tend to be more difficult and often provide better practice.
D.J.